CONGREGATION MELECH YISRAEL OF TORONTO
A Messianic Jewish Newsletter for the sake of רבינו ישוע מלך המשיח אדונינו Rabbeinu Yeshua Melech HaMashiach Adoneinu!
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CONGREGATION MELECH YISRAEL OF TORONTO |
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A Messianic Jewish Newsletter for the sake of רבינו ישוע מלך המשיח אדונינו Rabbeinu Yeshua Melech HaMashiach Adoneinu! |
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מתשובה למשיח לגאולה
במהרה בימינו. זכריה י"ב:י' |
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אני מאמין באמונה שלמה בביאת המשיח ואף על פי שיתמהמה עם כל זה אחכה לו בכל יום שיבוא. |
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CMY NEWSLETTER
November-December 2007 / Cheshvan-Kislev-Tevet 5768 Vol. 13 No. 3-4 |
A MESSAGE FROM THE RABBI"The Real Thing"
Do you remember the year when Cocoa-Cola slightly changed their drink formula, supposedly for the better, and called it “New Coke?” Well, it did not take too long before the Coke drinking public made a hewn cry claiming the change to be for the worse and not the better. The New Coke, they claimed, did not taste as good as the original. Personally I could not tell the difference between them. Public pressure was so intense, however, that the Cocoa-Cola Company started re-bottling the original recipe calling it “Coke Classic.” Today New Coke has disappeared into obscurity and Coke Classic is now just Coke. Why am I telling you this? I would like you to see the difference between how the public, in fact most of the Cocoa-Cola drinking world, reacted to a beverage company changing from the original formula to something different and Christianity changing from the original to something different! Originally faith in Yeshua HaMashiach was a Jewish thing. Yeshua was Jewish as well as all the apostles; yes, even Luke! The pattern of worship mirrored what was customarily taking place in the synagogues around the country (Yisrael). Yeshua regularly worshipped in the synagogues while traveling, as Scripture clearly tells us. The apostles, including Shaul (Paul), regularly attended synagogue services on Shabbat, which is something that is also a Scriptural fact. In fact, when the question of non-Jews becoming believers was addressed it was decided that new believers non-Jews should not be burdened with too many restrictions, but rather be instructed in the most critical tenants of the biblical Jewish faith, while still being allowed to grow in there understanding of Torah as they attended Shabbat service in the synagogue each week. |
Ma'asei HaTalmidim / Acts 15:20-21 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. 21 For Moshe of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Shabbat day.
The Jewish revolt in Yisrael of 135 A.D. against Rome ushered in a venomous period of persecution which was centered against the Jewish people. Jewish Believers and their non-Jewish brethren were caught up in this discrimination, because they were considered by Rome and Judaism as part of the Jewish community. In an effort to find relief from the singling-out of Jews for execution by the Roman government non-Jewish believers quickly disassociated themselves from their Jewish brethren. They also stopped doing many biblical practices which connected them to the Jewish community. The change from the original to something different had begun!
Years later the Emperor Constantine, in an effort to unite his disintegrating and divided kingdom, declared Christianity to be the state religion. This was followed by the decrees of the Nicean Creed, which all but outlawed anything that associated Jewishness with this new Christian faith. The switch from original to different was complete. The new “church” had effectively changed the times, seasons, holidays and even the name of Yeshua. Faith in Yeshua HaMashiach was reformulated to make it more Roman/Greek friendly. The original was changed into something new!!! Sadly, the new is nothing like the original, but no one complained it was better than the alternative, which was, at that time, banishment or death. The problem is that now that most believers have the knowledge of the change that took place they are still not complaining. The Nicean style of Christianity continues to this very day.
In 1967, after the six day war and the liberation of Yerushalyim, Messianic Judaism began to re-immerge on the scene as a legitimate interpretation of what faith in Yeshua HaMashiach was originally. However, the Christian church was not totally convinced of its necessity and they resisted profusely. Many, however, thought of it as a tool for evangelism, a new way for the church to witness to the Jewish people. Messianic Judaism, however, is a restoration movement! It is a movement by Jewish believers and many non-Jewish believers who have seen the light and therefore, the necessity to restore the original, biblical, mode of faith, which includes the restoration of the original times and seasons as practiced by Yeshua and His talmidim (disciples) thousands of years ago.
Over the course of forty years Messianic Judaism has had a growing influence within the church. Many Christian congregations have, and are in the process of, reevaluating their celebration of the biblical feasts of the L-rd as well as considering the implementation of other first century biblical practices. The voices of those in the Christian church who are saying that the church needs to return to her Hebraic roots are getting louder and louder. However, what they are being offered is a patch-up job.
Approximately eighteen hundred years ago non-Jewish believers changed the Messianic formula from biblically Jewish to Roman/Greek paganistic. Now the church is attempting to reclaim some of their Hebraic roots by modifying the changed formula by adding bits and pieces of the original formula to it. This is nothing more than changing the change to create a newly modified changed formula. What needs to be done is for the Christian church to recognize that the formula that they have now has no resemblance to the original; therefore, any modification of it would only confuse matters further. Rather, what needs to take place is what Coca-Cola did, and that is return to the original.
Why is it that a corporation can recognize when they have made a mistake and then do whatever it takes to correct it, but G-d’s people can not? Just because the Church as been doing things the same way for over a thousand of years does not mean that what they did is right. The fact is they have been doing it wrong.
Mishlei / Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
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